This is a compilation of changes made mostly to suit my play style, and that I feel makes for a fairer and more rewarding experience overall.

Latest version: 2.1.1

STCoM Weapon Pack + Outfit AddonREQUIRED, both addons are available right here on ModDB.

New game NOT required for those of you already using STCoM + OA or version 1.8+ of my mod*.

Save-friendly, you can uninstall anytime if you are unhappy with the changes. However, make sure you don't have any pending quests for patches and if so, complete them to avoid any issues.

* Users of versions 1.7 and older will require to start a new game as the items added by Axebeard's Modpack are no longer present. If you're bent on keeping your saves however, you can try to merge the files that conflict or carefully install those that do not.

Changelog:

Description:

Full Concept MODIFICATION for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.® Call of MISERY™

Just kidding.

Initially a small bunch of edits I made as I played Call of Misery to suit my play style, it has now become quite the tweak compilation and it's only getting bigger from here on. I'm well aware the changes will not be for everyone as they tone down the difficulty a bit, but I feel they make for a fairer experience overall as many design choices of the original mod were especially thought for Call of Pripyat's gameplay flow, which took part in just a few areas. Now, with Call of Chernobyl's greatly expanded game world and mechanics, some aspects clearly need to be reevaluated but without forgetting the essence of the Misery experience.

All in all, this mod contains the following:

Fixes: corrects certain oversights, such as inconsistencies in artifact stats and other small stuff.

Balance tweaks: stamina values, item weights, artifacts and many other gameplay aspects have been carefully revised.

Glad to hear it, personally I can't imagine myself enjoying CoM ironman as even vanilla CoC could give you really nasty surprises and sudden game overs. A campfire-saves-only run would be more my speed.

Actually, after taking a closer look at the files, the dependencies arise mostly from the Roadside Picnic submod included in Axebeard's tweaks, so if you don't install at least that component and all its related files you'll run into trouble.
Naturally I'm not too fond of such dependency so currently I'm trying to merge the changes into my mod so that Axebeard's pack is no longer required.

Everything seems to be working okay so far. The tweaks are pretty good overall, artifact hunting in particular did need a buff, same for stashes having crappy loot. The carry weight feels a little bit high, but not too bad.

Yeah, I think a better way to go about it is to give the player more options for increasing the carry weight, rather than buffing the base one much. I think the original Misery suits had different carry weights as well, to represent different amounts of pouches, straps to support the armor, etc, not sure if that carried over to CoM with OA.

Can't wait to see the quests that allow you to sell faction patches.
BTW. you will do something with knives? Because they're too fragile from my experience, skinned few mutants or stabbed some and it turn to trash.

Sure, so far I've been relying on Axebeard's tweaks for that as he increased the durability 3X, but in my experience it's a bit too much (I've been using a hunting knife for ages and it hasn't even gotten a dent on it) so I'll provide my own balanced version.

That's right, OA is required. Personally I enjoy the variety it brings, and right now I'm focused on delivering more features and tweaks than making versions compatible with everything. Sorry, maybe in the future I'll do something about it.

Ah, naturally I thought you were talking about the main mod, which absolutely needs Outfit Addon if you want it to work out of the box.
Of course, if you like my optional modules instead, most of them should work even with a barebones CoM installation. Do be careful though with the speed and field dressing ones as they were built upon changes made by OA and STCoM respectively, so you'll have to edit them to avoid any issues with your game.

Heya Alkiroth, this is the "mechanic buys broken guns" anon from the thread, just a heads up to a couple of odds and ends that have come up in the last week of testing:

*mechanic will sell their default personal weapon (Crank sell value for discount_salvage_1 so this can't be exploited? Disallow buying from him altogether? Alter spawn inventory so he doesn't have a gun to begin with?)

*sweet spot buy value for discount_salvage_1 is about 0.15 with vanilla CoM weapons, I'm not running STCoM so I can't offer any direct values for your implementation here, but if the general price range of things is similar, this should still hold true.

Other than that, the whole thing has been bulletproof over the course of the last 30 hours of playing. No unintended behaviors, crashes, or other side effects. Frankly I'm shocked no one did it sooner.

Hey man, nice to hear from you again. I really can't thank you enough for your help.

About the selling issue, I actually didn't even notice it because I decided to set [trade_generic_sell]:none for the mechanics, my thoughts being that they'll salvage the equipment ASAP so you don't get to buy it back from them.

Thanks for testing the pricing sweet spot too, until now I was going with 20% like you initially suggested as I found it agreeable. I'll try 15% and see how it works out with STCoM.

And yeah, it doesn't seem to me like the sort of modification that can screw up the game's stability. Editing traders in general is pretty harmless, unless you put the wrong item names or something like that.

Hey my man! So im having problems with bulletsponge enemies and mutants and I was wondering if your overhaul fixed weapon damage? Im using com STCOM wp and OA, also what other major things does your overhaul change?

Every modification has been documented in the changelog, and you'll see that I haven't touched anything damage-related at all. Therefore, this bullet-sponge problem you mention stems from either STCoM or even CoM itself, as Misery was designed to be a brutal mod from the get-go.

However, from my experience with STCoM + OA the weapon and armor balance is overall pretty decent, with neither humans nor mutants being too tough (excluding the obligatory pseudogiant tank). As a general rule you should be aiming for the head to get the best results, though in the case of some mutants like boars it is actually better to shoot them in the rear as they have thick skulls. Zombies, as everyone knows, should always be shot in the head be it in Stalker or in other works of fiction.

Lastly, you shouldn't be expecting too much from low-end gear either, and pay attention regarding the ammo type you are using for every situation (don't waste AP rounds on mutants for example).

Yeah, you'll see fewer spawns in CoM overall as it includes DoctorX's Desolation mod by default, if I'm not mistaken. Even so, I believe you can increase them by changing the "population factor" settings in the options menu.

I mean damage is so low enemies are bullet sponges ******* shotguns aint **** even in CCQ Aks take more than 10 shots to kill zombies to the chest at point blank and so on its really frustrating and there arent ANY weapon damage boost mods for STCOMWP :|

I made the config for increased damage:
1) Under the latest version with all the fixes: 1.0d + STCoP + Outfit addon (if these modes are not installed, then at your own risk, make a backup of the file in order to rollback the changes in case of what).
2) Did not touch the damage "by" and "from" the animals.
3) Prepare for the fact that hitting your head will be fatal.

Installation procedure: Make a copy of the weapons.ltx file along the path Your_Com / gamedata / config / creatures /, and then load the downloaded file with a replacement.

So I've played for some time and I realised that something might be broken for me... First of all I installed loot 2.0 and autism option file and so far all stashes I found are empty (new save) and also zombies drop quite alot of ammo and yeah condition of guns is not that bad but only for pistols and smaller shotguns. I also realised neat thing money loot from corpses I LOVE IT! And yeah one major problem that is bugging me... Rarely Beard, Owl or random stalker will buy a weapon from me and some weapons are yellow not even that bad. Im using Com with weapon pack outfit addon and HD textures for outfits, I dont think I installed it wrong I followed steps carefully

EDIT: Everything is working fine other than traders, they aint buying **** from me :D
Is there any way to just remove trader buy restriction to all items so you could sell stuff just like in regular Misery 2.1?

Loot 2.0 should only change the item rolls, not the chance of stashes being filled. Keep in mind that at the start of a new game only 1/2 of the stashes in the whole zone will be filled, for the rest you'll need to acquire the coordinates through quests and corpses. So it may just be bad luck I'm afraid.

Regarding the ammo drops they used to be even worse before I tweaked AUTisM myself, but you're right about something being off about the zombie calculations. I'll take a closer look at it some other time, as it's an optional module anyway.

Since you're playing with AUTisM, know that gun condition is now tied to the rank of the stalker who dropped it, but there's still some RNG involved so you may get some bad weapons from time to time. Also, many traders in CoM (including Owl and random stalkers) will buy weapons from you starting at 66% condition, but some others like Beard shouldn't. Could you please pinpoint what guns he's willing to buy? It may be an oversight by STCoM.

Yeah I figured out most of these things ^^ still THANKS so much for filling me in with all these informations, so final question is do you have any tip of where should I sell my junk and damaged weapons ? Also very good overhaul it's a must have using all these addons

No problem. Well for starters don't trade with Sidorovich at all, you'll only get ripped off. Sell mutant parts and artifacts to scientists if you can. Ammo, weapons and other supplies and devices should go to "quartermasters" (e.g. Owl, Petrenko, Skinflint). Finally, barmen will buy consumables from you of course, also stuff "favored by common stalkers".

Additionally, the upcoming 2.1 version will allow you to sell "technological items" with some salvage value left to mechanics (dead batteries, radios, etc.), including any weapon or outfit regardless of the condition (but at much reduced prices). Unfortunately I'm still waiting for Outfit Addon to update before I can release it.

So final conclusion is that this is pretty well done overhaul but yet one thing is bugging me, I'm playing as Loners and im almost veteran but my rep is still neutral and I can't find any companions to recruit? Is it because of my rep or do I need something else or is it completly removed from CoM?

Yeah, from my experience rep has always been hard to raise, even in CoC. I don't rely on companions though, so I wouldn't know about your other issue. I'll keep an eye out to see if there are any problems with it.